There is a lot of debate on exactly what the top ten starting hands in No Limit Texas Hold’em are. You could find a variety of lists all over the place that are slightly different. For the most part they are all very similar with maybe a slight different here and there. Some would rank specific hands a little higher than others would rank them. It all depends on where you find the information. No matter where you look you will find that the top 10 starting hands are very similar to the following hands.

1. AA – Best starting hand with no argument at all
2. KK – Second best starting hand with no argument at all
3. QQ – Third Best Starting hand
4. JJ – There is debate on whether JJ or AK suited come in 4^th place
5. AK suited
6. 10-10 – Some would rank this hand lower
7. AK – Unsuited – Could very easily be considered better then 10-10
8. AQ – Suited
9. KQ – Suited

10.  AJ – Suited – AQ off suit could be up in there somewhere as well

There is a lot of debate on which hands are better. They are not determined by heads up ranking.

Example:

You see from the list above that KQ suited is ranked higher then AJ Suited. If these two hands were to go up against each other with no other opponents then the AJ would have the upper hand. The rankings are based on a full table before the flop.

A lot of beginners are taught to play only the top 10 starting hands and to just fold the rest of the hands that they are dealt. It is a really bad strategy for advanced poker players but a great strategy for beginners. The more you play and the more experience you get, the more hands you start to play. With the right amount of experience you will find that there are different ways to play different hands. The top ten starting hands will lose a lot to hands that are not in the top 10. The best time to have a top 10 hand is in a preflop all in type situation. You want to have the best chance to win when you put your money in the middle.

It is normally not advised to move all in before the flop with anything less than a top 5 starting hand. Even 6-10 are not great hands if you are going all in before the flop. The chances of being dominated are very good. There is a lot more to poker then the top 10 starting hands, but it is a great way to start and learn.

A lot of people that consider themselves poker players only know one poker game; Texas Hold’em. With the widespread popularity of the game, there are more people learning it and loving it each and every day. What a lot of these people do not realize is that there is more then just one poker game. There are several different poker games and even more benefits to learning the different games. If you enjoy any one poker game, then you will without a doubt enjoy at least one of the other games available to play.

Different kinds of Poker Games

The most popular poker game is known as Texas Hold’em. Chances are, if you only play one poker game that is going to be the one. There aren’t really many people that know poker but do not know Texas Hold’em. There are however, a lot of people that play Texas Hold’em and do not know about the other games. The more popular poker games besides Texas Hold’em are Omaha, Omaha Hi Lo, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo and Razz. There are also some other games as well but these are the best to start with.

Why Learn Multiple Games?

If you only know one game and you love that game then who knows how you will feel about the other games. Even more importantly; if you are good at the game who knows how well you will be at another game. There is a lot of potential that you may be missing out on and opportunities that you must venture into. If you decide that you are not made for any of the specific games then that is up to you. If you do not give it a try, then you will have no idea whether or not you will be able to be a great player of any of the other poker games. If you are a good Texas Hold’em poker player then you could be a world class Omaha player and never know it.

If you ever take a look at different professional poker players you will see that the best players have cashes at the WSOP in just about every different game.  There are not a lot of professional poker players that play only one single game. Of course, you may not be trying to go for a profession in poker, but still; that says something about learning different games. If you have fun playing one you are going to have fun with the other ones as well.

The number one reason why you should learn all the different poker games is because you will be well rounded and ready when any poker game comes up. You wouldn’t want to be in a position where you have the opportunity to get into a good poker game but you can’t because they are not playing your game. Plain and simple; you just have to learn all the poker games if you are going to call yourself a poker player.

If you are into Texas Hold’em, the next best game to start playing is Omaha. From there you can make a jump into Omaha Hi/Lo which is one of the best poker games around. After you learn those, you might want to give the seven card stud variations a try. Once you learn seven card stud you will have no problem getting into razz. Once you learn these games you will be ready for the big H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the World Series of Poker.

There are so many factors that go into playing poker that it takes years of experience to figure them all out.  There is math, psychology and common sense all put into one subject.  It doesn’t matter if you play poker online or offline, you are still playing poker.  The difference lies in the way you think about the game, and how you play it.  There are many differences and all the same similarities in the two.  Depending on what type of poker you play and why you play has a lot to do with the difference between online and offline poker.

Just for the sake of this article we are going to assume that we are talking about playing in ring games (cash games).  The game of choice is going to be Texas Hold Em (Limit or No Limit, doesn’t matter in this case).  We are also going to assume that you want to play poker to make some serious money, and you are also a somewhat of a serious poker player.

The number one most obvious difference in online and offline poker is the fact that you are not playing face to face.  There is no physical body that you are playing against when you are online.  You here many times that body language is a good way to get a tell on someone.  Well, if you are playing online you can obviously not get anything out of body language because it doesn’t exist online.  This makes it so you have to use other ways to get reads on your opponents.

Another difference is that with online poker, you can play as many games as you want at the same time.  The majority of professional players, play at least six to twenty games at the same time.  This allows you to make a lot more money and get a lot more going.  Needless to say, you could never do this offline.

When you are playing offline, you are completely focused on what every player is doing and with every detail of what is going on.  This is crucial in an offline game because opportunities are scarce.  When you are playing online in twenty different games, it is a different situation.  In this case, opportunities are not scarce and the playing style is completely different.  While you do want to get as much information about the players in the games as possible, it is not as important then in an offline game.

Playing online is more of a mathematical game straight forward game, when you are playing multiple games at one time.  You play by the odds most of the time, and do not really play any other way.  If you play by the odds, you will win most of the time.  At the end of a session online, you will have lost a lot of money, but you will have won even more.  You may go through $10,000.00 in losses, but have come up with $15,000.00 in wins.  This is all because you went with the odds.  You play good hands, and you fold bad hands.  You raise when you have a raising hand and you fold when you have a folding hand.  When you play offline it is not the same.

While there are many differences in online and offline poker, they are still poker.  It is still the same game with just some different twists.  Most poker players specialize in one or the other.  Most do play both, but make the real money with either online poker or offline poker.  It is hard to make the transition from one to the other, but many players do it.

Staying consistent in poker can cause some problems and it could cause some solutions to problems. There is a time to be consistent and there is a time not to be consistent. Playing poker is one of the most mind tiring games in the world. The mind is constantly thinking and just all over the place. It can be very hard to think about all these different things at once and still focus on your game. One of the important things to be thinking about is the way you are playing your hands. Not staying aggressive with strong hands is a mistake that many players new and old make way too many times.

There are a couple of simple reasons why you would want to stay aggressive with a strong hand. The first reason is because you do not want your opponents to be able to see free cards and catch a draw. This is very important to think about because it can be the difference from winning a pot and losing your entire stack.

Example:

You have AK (suited diamonds)

You have good position and you decide to raise before the flop to make it 5 times the big blind. You end up getting 2 callers and the flop comes:

A 3 9 (off suit)

Okay so this is a fairly good flop for your hand, so now what do you do?

You have a strong hand, and you played it that way before the flop. There is no reason to quit playing it strong now. There are however several reasons to keep playing this hand strong. There is no way you can know what your opponents have. The only way you can get any kind of idea is by betting your hand here and seeing what your opponents do. Stay aggressive here and see where it takes you.

Chances are you will get at least one of them to fold; maybe even all of them. Who cares if you have the best hand and you want more money. What happens when you are going up against pocket 2’s and one of your opponents catches a 2 on the turn because you did not bet your hand? A pair (even a pair of aces) is not that good of a hand. There is way too much out there to not bet your hand aggressively and take out the trash.

Aggressive poker is winning poker, and that has been said by many very good and respectable poker players. When you are being aggressive, you are putting your opponents in a tough position, which is exactly where you want them. The idea is to have each and every one of your opponents not want to play against you. They should have respect for you because of your aggressive play. Quite simply, if you stop playing your strong hand aggressive; you are letting all of your opponents off easy. Each and every one of them is saying in their heads “let’s see a free card come on!”  Staying aggressive with strong hands will make you a much better player if you don’t do that already.